Articles in Category: Publications & Resources

WW | Localised Agro-Food Systems and Geographical Indications in the Face of Globalisation: the Case of Queso Chontaleño

Publications & Resources

This study analyses a localised agro-food system producing Queso Chontaleño (QC) cheese in the Chontales Department in Nicaragua and the first effects of the Geographical Indication (GI) scheme which alters the power relations between the actors of the cheese-dairy sector within the framework of global dynamics. The first part focuses on systèmes agro-alimentaires localisés (SYAL), or localised agro-food systems, and it provides the theoretical background to the case study. The second part analyses the QC SYAL and its territorial and institutional context. It is found that GI introduces new competitive pressures that reinforce local elites at the expense of traditional QC actors and that the weak involvement of the State may prevent GIs from enhancing the development of territorialised agro-food systems. The conclusion is a recommendation to EU policymakers that promotion of GIs at the level of the WTO be accompanied by measures that can ensure stricter national legislations on GIs to protect local resources.

WW | The reinterpretation of the agri-food system and its spatial dynamics through the industrial district

Publications & Resources
The reinterpretation of the agri-food system and its spatial dynamics through the industrial district

Th e industrial district theory has brought to the development economics the opportunity to interpret the economic change through places, where it actually is formed, as a result of the join action of the local and extra-local social, economic and institutional forces. Th is paper sets out to discuss the contribution that the industrial district theory can make to the debate on the spatial dynamics of agri-food systems in the age of globalisation. To this end, the fi rst part of the paper analyses the contribution of the industrial district approach in the relationship between industry and territory; the second part studies the evolution of the concept of the agri-food system and the main determinants of the spatial dynamics in modern agri food systems. Th is paper supports that the industrial district theory can shed a new light on the spatial dynamics of agri-food systems, and can off er an alternative to the mainstream approach. In using the local community as a unit of analysis, the ID theory gives a key role to human agents of production and their knowledge and the agri-food system can be seen as ‘a global network of places’, each place being specialized in a diff erent component of the system.

WW | De la leche al queso: queserías rurales de América Latina

Publications & Resources
De la leche al queso: queserías rurales de América Latina

Coordinado por François Boucher y Virginie Brun, y editado por el Instituto Latinoamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura, IICA; el Centro de Cooperación Internacional en Investigación Agronómica para el Desarrollo (CIRAD, por sus siglas en francés) y Miguel Angel Porrúa. Editions Miguel Ángel Porrúa, México D.F. 2011. 413 pages

WW | De la producción de maíz al consumo social de tortilla

Publications & Resources
De la producción de maíz al consumo social de tortilla

Escribir sobre el proceso de productivo del maíz y su transformación en tortilla implica abordar problemas relacionados con la historia, la cultura, el desarrollo de la tecnología, los procesos de urbanización y la distribución de los alimentos en el hogar. Su complejidad rebasa las perspectivas limitadas de una disciplina y obligan a esbozar un enfoque a la vez disciplinario e interdisciplinario que comprenda la problemática histórica, social, antropológica, técnica y política, con el objetivo de hacer un diagnóstico integral y proponer alternativas sistémicas.